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21 March 2016updated 27 Jul 2021 7:22am

Meet the women forced to choose between domestic abuse and poverty

Visa requirements are forcing hundreds of women a year to choose between abuse and deportation.

By Gareth Evans

When Mina arrived in the UK from Iran, she finally expected her basic human rights to be protected. Instead, she was choked and beaten in front of her children by the man she married.

Her husband, a British citizen, sponsored her visa to come to the UK. Its requirements stated that she could not access public funds such as benefits and social housing, a position he exploited by controlling every aspect of her life from her finances to when she could leave the house. She feared that if she protested he would put her out on the street or have her deported. But worst of all, she feared that he would take her children away.

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